For those who have never been to China, it might be difficult to imagine how much influence A Dream of Red Mansions has.

The novel, one of the most precious literary heritages of ancient China, has long been part of the blood flowing in the vessels of every ordinary Chinese.

Outside the small circle of the highly aloof Redologists, there are many others who enjoy themselves by reading the novel and doing related research. Liu Xinwu is a renowned representative of this group.

Yan Hong, a newspaper editor in Hefei, the provincial capital of East China's Anhui Province, published a book titled Misunderstanding the Red Mansions last year.

In the book she writes about her very personal and unusual way of reading the classic novel. For example, she compares You Sanjie, a female character in the novel, with Muzimei, a young female who made waves in 2004 by writing about her sex life in her blog.

The book was only Yan's casual writing at first. But after she posted some of her essays on the Internet they stirred heated discussions and publishers became interested.

Shen Weifeng, now attending university in Canada, sees Red Mansions in a very similar way. She writes a column entitled Job-hunting and Red Mansions for a Chinese magazine. In one of her most widely read stories she describes Wang Xifeng, another female character from the novel, as a high-level administrator of a company.

"Do not deify Red Mansions, and do not deify Redology," said Shen, who claims that she has read the novel a hundred times.

"It is a diversified era today. While some people are trying to construct so-called 'Redology,' some others tend to read the novel just like they read other pop culture products," said Chen Weizhao, a Chinese literature professor from Shanghai-based Fudan University who himself has also published a book on "Red Mansions."

"The vitality of the novel," Chen said, "lies in the fact that it can adapt to the changing social trends of the times."

Between 1950s and 1970s, like everything else in China, research on Red Mansions was highly politicized.

Yan's and Shen's joking style books, Chen said, are reflections of the post-modern humour prevailing in today's China.

Chen Lin, a newspaper editor in Beijing, believes the Internet has become the catalyst for grass-roots research.

Chen is the administrator of an online forum on "Red Mansions." Every day more than 100 people meet on the forum and discuss subjects they are interested in.

"The Internet provides an equal platform on which everybody is free to voice their opinions," said Chen.

Liu Xinwu Decodes A Dream of Red Mansions published in August 2005 by the Oriental Publishing House.

(China Daily April 4, 2006)